Teaching parents to teach their kids

By VALERIE STRAUSS
WASHINGTON POST
In today's school environment, pupils can barely move without being confronted with another test. Dorothy Rich thinks it's time for parents to be tested, too.
Rich is the founder of the nonprofit Home and School Institute in Washington and the creator of MegaSkills, a program that trains teachers and parents to carry out learning activities designed to build pupil achievement. Now in more than 4,000 schools in 48 states, it's the largest parent involvement program in the country.
Rich's test doesn't grade parents on their math skills or reading comprehension, but instead measures how well they use everyday activities to help their kids learn math, language and critical thinking.
"My work, over 40 years in school and family involvement, has centered on the role of parents in education, doing activities around home that relate to school but do not duplicate school," Rich said. "This includes math in the bathtub and at the gas station, and reading in the supermarket. These take place in the ordinary routines of everyday life.
"Many parents still don't know about the power of these everyday moments," she noted.
Shared at home
Rich said she came up with the idea for the test to reinforce the importance of parents in their children's education. Parents can use everyday activities to teach what she has dubbed MegaSkills -- the beliefs, behaviors and attitudes that determine achievement in school and in life. They are: confidence, motivation, effort, responsibility, perseverance, caring, teamwork, common sense problem-solving and focus.
"You share language ... encourage children's reading and academic interests," she said. "In short, you prepare children to be successful and to want to be successful in and out of school. You are doing outside of school what inside of school, no matter how good it is, just can't do. This is the prime educating role of the home, to extend and to supplement the school."
Rich became interested in helping parents create learning opportunities for their children 40 years ago, when, she said, she was referred to "as the home recipe lady."
"It was a denigration," she said. "Everybody else had all these theories about unlocking student achievement, and it used to make me a little ashamed. And then I came across three words that helped me have confidence in my own program: 'Easy is hard.' Making something seem easy is about the hardest thing you can do. And that's always helped me."
The good news about this test is that parents can retake it as many times as they want to get a top score. If you get a top score, great. If not, Rich said, work harder and try again.